Paleomagnetic evidence for a long-lived, potentially reversing martian dynamo at ~3.9 Ga
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Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The 4.1-billion-year-old meteorite Allan Hills 84001 (ALH 84001) may preserve a magnetic record of the extinct martian dynamo. However, previous paleomagnetic studies have reported heterogeneous, nonunidirectional magnetization in the meteorite at submillimeter scales, calling into question whether it records a dynamo field. We use the quantum diamond microscope to analyze igneous Fe-sulfides in ALH 84001 that may carry remanence as old as 4.1 billion years (Ga). We find that individual, 100-μm-scale ferromagnetic mineral assemblages are strongly magnetized in two nearly antipodal directions. This suggests that the meteorite recorded strong fields following impact heating at 4.1 to 3.95 Ga, after which at least one further impact heterogeneously remagnetized the meteorite in a nearly antipodal local field. These observations are most simply explained by a reversing martian dynamo that was active until 3.9 Ga, thereby implying a late cessation for the martian dynamo and potentially documenting reversing behavior in a nonterrestrial planetary dynamo.
Date Issued
2023-05
Date Acceptance
2023-04-19
Citation
Science Advances, 2023, 9 (21), pp.1-13
ISSN
2375-2548
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Start Page
1
End Page
13
Journal / Book Title
Science Advances
Volume
9
Issue
21
Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2023 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license, which permits which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ade9071
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
eade9071
Date Publish Online
2023-05-24